Only close family and friends — which included some lifelong acquaintances from Torrance along with Hollywood stars — were invited to attend Louis Zamperini’s funeral Sunday at Hollywood Presbyterian Church.

But the city of Torrance, where Zamperini grew up, is now planning its own send-off for the hometown hero.

“It’s open to the public,” Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto said a few hours before he was to announce the plans at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. “We’re encouraging everyone to come and we really hope that Torrance High School alumni will come out in force.”

The gathering is planned for 6 p.m. July 31 at Zamperini Stadium at Torrance High School, Zamperini’s alma mater. The football stadium at 2125 Lincoln Ave., near Arlington Avenue, also hosts track and field meets, which Zamperini excelled at before moving on to compete at USC and in the Olympics.

“We plan to have guest speakers there; the alumni association will be represented,” said Scotto, who attended the private funeral. “And we hope to have flyovers. We’re arranging that right now. It will be a true tribute to a local hero.”

“It was completely packed,” Scotto said of the funeral at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, where Zamperini was a member and Sunday school teacher for many years. “It was very touching, but as I sat there I thought we have to do something in Torrance.”

He said Zamperini’s close family members — children Cynthia and Luke and grandson Clay — were receptive to the idea and are planning to participate.

Former Torrance Mayor Ken Miller, 91, who lived next door to Zamperini in the 2000 block of Gramercy Avenue for about eight years in the late 1930s, said a public gathering in Torrance is fitting.

“I think that’s great,” he said. “Everybody will go.”

In addition to Angelina Jolie, whose husband, Brad Pitt, was in attendance, Sunday’s service featured Draggan Mihailovich, a director with Fox Sports; Kyle Gauthier, who spoke about how Zamperini helped him through a difficult time in his life; and Zamperini’s family members. Hymns included “How Great Thou Art.”

After the afternoon church service, a reception was held at a nearby Italian restaurant, where Miller said he talked with Jolie for about 10 minutes. She told him Zamperini had seen much of the film as it was going into the editing process. Filming was done earlier this year on location in Australia, where Jolie told Miller a stand-in town was found for the scenes depicting Zamperini’s childhood in Torrance.

“I told her those were some good years and bad years,” Miller said, referring to Zamperini’s rebellious childhood. “She was very interested in the fact that we lived next door and that we knew the family very well. … I saw Louie a lot because Mrs. Zamperini would invite us over for spaghetti.”

Miller said he was somewhat “overwhelmed” by the private time the film director gave to him at the restaurant. “What a delightful person,” he said of Jolie. “She was very down to earth. … There was no makeup, no showing off.”

“I told her (at the end of our conversation), ‘Don’t forget about Torrance in all this,’ and she said they were going to have to plan something for Torrance when the movie comes out,” Miller said.

Miller kept in touch with Zamperini through the years but hadn’t called too often in recent months after his friend became so busy with the film project.

“Unbroken” is based on the 2010 best-seller of the same name by Laura Hillenbrand. The book will be released in paperback July 29.

“He’s really only been recognized in the last 10 years,” Scotto said of Zamperini’s fame. “Up until then, very few people realized how great of a man he was. The stories are just unbelievable.”

To his hometown of Torrance, however, Zamperini has been a much-feted favorite son for decades.

“Louis would be delighted to know the city is hosting a public memorial for him,” said Zamperini friend Debbie Hays, first vice president of the Torrance Historical Society. “After all, he put Torrance on the map.”

Named in his honor are Zamperini Way and Zamperini Field at Torrance Municipal Airport as well as Zamperini Stadium at Torrance High.

Zamperini moved to the Hollywood Hills many years ago but never seemed to forget his childhood years in Torrance, where he acquired the nickname “Torrance Tornado” as a track runner who went on to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Zamperini spent 47 days on a raft in the Pacific during World War II before he was captured and sent to a Japanese POW camp where he was tortured for two years.

Haunted after he returned home from the war, Zamperini experienced a life-changing conversion to Christianity after attending a Billy Graham revival meeting on the streets of Los Angeles. He dedicated the rest of his life to God, writing a letter of forgiveness to his former Japanese tormentor, establishing the Victory Boys Camp for troubled youths in Los Angeles and giving inspirational talks throughout the world.

He maintained a busy speaking schedule until just recently, speaking at a sold-out February 2013 breakfast at the Armstrong Theater in Torrance that was sponsored by King’s Harbor Church.

“He had a way of changing lives through his inspiration and a capacity for forgiveness that was divine in nature,” Hays said.

When the “Unbroken” movie comes out on Christmas Day, Scotto said, more “people will really have a whole different view of him. Many of them will be saying, ‘I wish I knew that guy when he was alive.’ ”

Donna Littlejohn has covered the Harbor Area as a reporter since 1981. Along with development, politics, coyotes, battleships and crime, she writes features that have spotlighted an array of topics, from an alligator on the loose in a city park to the modern-day cowboys who own the trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She loves border collies and Aussie dogs, cats, early California Craftsman architecture and most surviving old stuff. She imagines the 1970s redevelopment sweep that leveled so much of San Pedro's historic waterfront district as very sad.

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